Three Ways to Win

We still havn't quite come down after the highs of yesterday's result.

Let it sink it...Arsenal have completed the treble over Spurs, victory in the league at the Emirates and WHL and a resounding victory to knock them out of the FA Cup en route to our first visit to Wembley since 2010.

This is all the more impressive considering the huge windfall Spurs recieved after Gareth Bale departed for Real Madrid to the tune of 85 million Euros.

Several of those new signings featured in yesterday's North London derby. Eriksen,Bentaleb and Chadli started, whilst Paulinho and Soldado come of the bench.Between them they had little sway over the match, aside from Chadli's dynamic running into the Arsenal penalty area.

Before kick-off The Lovely Reds was a little cautious citing our ridiculous injury list as cause for concern read here. The exclusion of Ozil, Wilshere, Walcott and Ramsey due to injury seriously weakens our side as all four of those players would have featured to some extent had they been fit.

With that in mind how much more impressive is our victory over our neighbours (we won't use the term rivals as clearly a treble in victories signals that a gap has opened - be sure to mind that won't you!)

For all the post match criticism Arsenal may have received from Spurs fans and pundits alike, that we 'parked the bus' or that we were 'dominated' in terms of possession there are a few things that need to be considered.

First and foremost this is an Arsenal side plagued by injury. Along with the players mentioned above we were unable to field Abou Diaby and Kim Kallstrom meaning that our bench was by no means strong enough to rotate. So you can forgive the players being happy to sit back and soak up whatever limp effort Spurs threw their way.

Secondly, Arsenal have shown that they can beat Spurs in a number of different ways this season. Our first encounter was a game of two halves, Arsenal claiming the first, whilst Spurs the second. The FA Cup tie was comprehensively won by Arsenal who displayed attacking verve and innovation, whilst Spurs went down without much of a fight.

Thirdly, the contradictory nature of televised sports punditry is almost laughable, in fact it's so funny that it's gone full circle and is now just f*ing annoying. As our maulling at Eastlands showed, when we underestimate our opponent's attacking capabilities we leave ourselves vulnerable. Similarly at the Emirates against Bayern our naivety was exposed when chasing the equaliser, only to concede a second. With the best defense in the league it makes absolute tactical sense to invite pressure having struck early and play on the counter attack against a side who play a high defensive line.

When The Oil Money did it against us, without even having scored it's declared pragmatic and tactically astute. When we go to WHL, score early and fend off wave after wave of attack, only conceding two good goalscoring opportunities its labelled a 'poor performance'.

We are well aware this is not a trully great Arsenal side, so to go to WHL and play a game of tit-for-tat with an injury ravaged team would have been foolish and detrimental to our title hopes. If Spurs want a more open contest let's see how well they fare once Ramsey, Ozil, Walcott and the rest are ready to add insult to injury.

Who cares if Spurs had more possession, we know all too well that possession doesn't count if you don't do anything with it. And if Spurs fans and pundits want to bring up stats how about the one where Arsenal had 3 shots on target to Tottenham's 2?

It wasn't pretty and it certainly wasn't vintage Arsenal, anything near to the type of performance we're capable of but that makes it all the more impressive that we have beaten Spurs 3 times this season without conceding a. single. goal not one. That reeks of poor form, in fact at what point does a run of losses constitute a 'downward spiral of results' eh?

Mertesacker and Koscielny were imperious, absolutely outstanding, winning headers and marshalling Adebayor into submission. When the ungrateful striker wasn't dropping deep to get a rare touch of the ball he was making runs so far offside Arsenal fans worldwide gave a knowing chuckle for memories of the ex-Arsenal player's propensity for sheer stupidity.

Our defense needed to be on point today, not so much for fear of Tottenham's attacking potency but more because Szczesny decided to have one of those days we thought he'd grown out of. Jumping high to collect a seemingly harmless cross, Szczesny dropped the catch onto the toe of Tottenham's Chadli whose effort was blocked by a wall of limbs made by our centrebacks.

The Ox had a good performance in central midfield and made several more of what are fast becoming his signature forrays into the opposition's penalty area. He linked well with Rosicky for Arsenal's goal, yet another classic to add to Thomas' fast growing collection (player of the month anyone?) and his second against Spurs this year.

The rest of our squad was solid and did the jobs they were tasked with, Podolski helped protect Gibbs who had just returned from injury, whilst Santi was constantly nipping at the heels of Chadli and Bentaleb.

Our only cause for concern was Giroud's rather lackluster performance. The Frenchman was off-the-pace for most of the game, perking up a bit when he was asked to hold the ball up in order to run out the clock. Aside from a brief display of close control and physical prowess he was anonymous, losing the vast majority of hie aerial duels with Kaboul and failing to act as the human ping pong table we've come to know and love.

Small grievances aside this was a good, solid performance characterised by a moment of brilliance (although let's not forget we could've been 2-0 up in 15 minutes had the Ox remembered what composure looks like).

On to the next ones now, where 3 points against Chelsea is a must.

Look forward to some pre-match build up The Lovely Reds' style everyday this week.

For more Arsenal and football content follow @thelovelyreds on twitter and tune into the blog everyday for original content. Thanks for reading